A little Conan-esque magic, but mostly same ol’ Jay

There were a few moments of magic on Jay Leno’s return to “Tonight” — including a “Wizard of Oz” opener with a surprise appearance by the snidely fun Betty White.

Mostly, though, it was business as usual: Members of the audience rushed to high-five Leno at the start. He delivered his joke-stuffed monologue in his familiar rat-a-tat style. And there was the usual order of guests: two stars — Jamie Foxx and gold medalist Lindsey Vonn — and a musical performer, Brad Paisley.

However, a couple of departures Monday night did make me sit up and take a little notice.

Suddenly, Jay was throwing taped bits — a la Conan? — in the middle of his monologue: a visual of “the world’s tightest pants” and a feature called “How boring is Alan Greenspan?”

Was he attempting to channel O’Brien for all the fans who miss him?

The longest of these off-stage bits definitely had a Conan-esque feel: Leno went hunting for a new desk, which, on “The Jay Leno Show,” he had replaced with a center-stage chair.

I’ll have to say the “Great Desk Search” was my favorite part of the show; with that feisty Chihuahua biting Leno’s hand in one home and “Idol’s” Randy Jackson dropping by for a guest shot in another. (I laughed out loud when the family kept snapping photos of each other with Jackson in the background.)

Once into guest mode, however, Leno’s return stopped being special. An irritatingly hyper Jamie Foxx seemed to try too hard in his honoring of the host’s comeback: spraying champagne into the audience, doing a silly celebratory dance, kneeling before Jay.

At this point, in fact, I switched over to Dave Letterman to see what he had to counter Leno.

Dave had just trotted out his own big guest, Bill Murray. Murray, who looked even zanier than usual with a lame leg in a sling, a Russian fur hat, striped shorts and a tight, glittery purple top spoofing the flamboyant style of Olympic skater Johnny Weir.

It was a scream — particularly their conversation about “Ghostbusters.” Yes, Murray beat Foxx hands down in the entertaining department.

As for each host’s references to the NBC mess that ended in Conan leaving “Tonight” and Leno returning, neither mentioned O’Brien by name.

However, Letterman quipped: “Thank you very much, welcome to the ‘Late Show,’ my name is Dave Letterman — same time, same host.”

And: “I want to tell you something, tonight is a rough night for my mom. She doesn’t know who to watch — Jimmy Kimmel or Jay.”

Back to Leno … He played off NBC’s discomfiting disposal of hosts, with his own greeting: “It’s good to be home. I’m Jay Leno, your host … at least for a while.”

Plus, as mentioned before, there was the taped black-and-white pre-monologue opening that riffed on “Wizard of Oz”: We saw Leno, a la Dorothy, lying in bed and chanting in his sleep, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home …”

When he woke up, he was surrounded by “Tonight” staples: Kevin Eubanks, Ross the Intern and John Melendez, and related to them the dream he had. He went to a strange place, Jay recalled, where some things were wonderful and others “not so nice.”

Best part was when octogenarian White popped her head into the rustic room and remarked cattily: “My, NBC really did cut your budget! Look at this ratty ass barn.”

Ah, yes … Now if only Lorne Michaels would jump on Betty and — as S.A. fan David Mathews has been campaigning for — get her to host “Saturday Night Live.”